Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Monday, March 18, 2024
A small elegy
A Small Elegy
By Jiri OrtenMy friends have left. Far away, my darling is asleep.Outside, it's as dark as pitch.I'm saying words to myself, words that are whitein the lamplight and when I'm half-asleep I beginto think about my mother. Autumnal recollection.Really, under the cover of winter, it's as if I knoweverything---even what my mother is doing now.She's at home in the kitchen. She has a small child's stovetoward which the wooden rocking horse can trot,she has a small child's stove, the sort nobody uses today, butshe basks in its heat. Mother. My diminutive mom.She sits quietly, hands folded, and thinks aboutmy father, who died years ago.And then she is skinning fruit for me. I amin the room. Sitting right next to her. You've got to see us,God, you bully, who took so much. Howdark it is outside! What was I going to say?Oh, yes, now I remember. Becauseof all those hours I slept soundly, through calmnights, because of all those loved ones who are deepin dreams---Now, when everything's running short,I can't stand being here by myself. The lamplight's too strong.I am sowing grain on the headland.I will not live long.
History
A lovely colour shot of Sir Ernest Shackleton's doomed trans-Antarctic exploration ship The Endurance, which broke up & sank on 21st November 1915. This paget plate was taken by Frank Hurley a couple of months beforehand and was one of the few colour photos he saved from the ice. pic.twitter.com/wk1AYdOYvu
— BabelColour (@StuartHumphryes) February 6, 2024
An Insight
"[A] variety of evidence suggest[s] that
— Garett is raising money for the Richmond SPCA (@GarettJones) February 7, 2024
(a) human capital is a more basic source of growth than are the institutions,
(b) poor countries get out of poverty through good policies, often pursued by dictators, and
(c) subsequently improve their political institutions." pic.twitter.com/42FDRZ4dXS
I see wonderful things
Amazing: A gecko trapped in amber, almost perfectly preserved after 54 million years. https://t.co/gWnYJDlZDx pic.twitter.com/qD6qgoJUg0
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) February 6, 2024
Offbeat Humor
Britain summed up in one headline. It has everything: passive aggression, pettiness, mild protest, humour and overrunning roadworks. There’s even a grey sky. Bravo. pic.twitter.com/p9aMUj4RVs
— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) February 7, 2024
Data Talks
"Less discussed is the fact that public confidence in colleges has fallen significantly across all ideological groups since 2015." https://t.co/SXcmoBhN1d pic.twitter.com/gExZozcq7D
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) January 16, 2024
Sunday, March 17, 2024
One Art
One Artby Elizabeth BishopThe art of losing isn’t hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster.Lose something every day. Accept the flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.The art of losing isn’t hard to master.Then practice losing farther, losing faster:places, and names, and where it was you meantto travel. None of these will bring disaster.I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, ornext-to-last, of three loved houses went.The art of losing isn’t hard to master.I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gestureI love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evidentthe art of losing’s not too hard to masterthough it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
History
An absolutely fantastic #Roman ship, "De Meern 1", lenght 25m. It was wrecked in a winding tributary of the Rhine around the year 190 AD, possibly due to navigational error. Much of the ship’s interior and the captain's personal... 1/2#LimesCongress2022#RomanArchaeology pic.twitter.com/Q0dgggO73X
— Nina Willburger (@DrNWillburger) August 25, 2022